OK, I've decided something to get started with is better than trying to achieve the best possible initial import.

So here is a non-perfect list of authors, a table to link authors to games, and 551 of those links.

The thinking is at least this can bootstrap the process rather than waiting for me to try and get the data perfect before an import - let's import something and tidy-up from there. Every time I look at the data there are another five or ten things that need fixing (different spacing, one more initial so maybe the same person, some dual name with commas or the word "And" and so on.) The more I clean up the list of authors, the further away I am from being able to automatically match a game to an author.

I'm going to work on an admin so that Lee & I can tidy up. I can do this on a local machine if the current data is too dirty for an initial import - we can get a better table of games_authors data locally and then import that when folk are happy.

And here's a basic basic BASIC admin (don't get too excited about the domain name, I fudged my hosts file):

Each graphic below has two web pages in, I've just crunched it all up into a couple of images. Hopefully not too confusing.

So the top of the first graphic shows a login window, once you login you get the games list (second half of the image), click on the authors column:

You go into the game editor screen and can set up to four authors (top half of the graphic below). Set all four and save, go back to the games lists, you can see (bottom half of the bottom graphic) the game's authors have changed:

Obviously this can be changed to allow game titles to be changed, publishers, years, screenshots, SSDs, games added yadda yadda but just starting with the very basics. And it will need someone with better web design skills than me (a very low starting point!)

Issue with the site: if you search for a magazine/type-in game -- e.g. Rock-Race -- and press Enter after you've typed the name of the game into the Search field, the results by default won't show the game you've searched for, even if it exists! You have to select the "Magazine/book type in" checkbox to make the result visible.

I agree too, but there is a problem. Arcadian wants the browse to hide things such as magazine listings by default. This means that the state is stored in a page by the time you get to do a search. Should we:
Ignore any state when a search is done? What happens if someone has selected the categories they want before they do a search? E.g. if they are refining a search? The state gets cleared. Is this what we want?
Decide that if the state is the same as the default when a search is done, we should include everything. But then what happens if someone actually wants to search with those options?
I think there are two options. Either do what I have done, or default to displaying all categories then allow the user to refine. Anything else means you end up putting in too many rule, which will be complex to code and maintain, and which at some point will be confusing for the user when it does something they don't expect.

Personally I think the site should display everything by default and let the user refine because this is the simplest design, but I think we decided to stick to Arcadians design as much as possible, so that is what I have done.

Hmm, that's awkward. Two ideas:
- on the search results page, add some words to indicate that only a subset was searched. Maybe "Filtered Search Results" or similar, instead of the text 'browse release types'
- by the search text window, offer two buttons: 'search' and 'search all'

I would say that, when browsing, it should show EVERYTHING by default, and SEARCH should search for EVERYTHING by default.
If you then wish to refine that search, it is a simple matter of clicking one tick box.
eg click MAGAZINES OFFsimple.

Before you catch that taxi are you going to read my emails about the admin & authors ... I was waiting on you for feedback before sending to Paul, but you've been even slower than me. ( Well, not really, I'm a lot slower).

The code (as such) is on its way to Paul so hopefully it can be munged into shape (then I can start putting the edit functionality into more screens - games (including screenshots, SSDs), authors, genres, and so on. So admins can edit content online.)

If the idea is for the "standard search" to find the, err, popular commercial games, instead of 'search', should this instead be subtitled with some text that tells the user this, something like 'popular games'
For the 'search all', do people prefer this, or instead 'full search'

The version of Chris Dewhurst's excellent puzzler Shields only works properly on a BBC Master (for instance the shield counter is always zero, you cannot begin a new game, simply carry on an old one), but the Play button will load it into JSBeeb in BBC Micro mode.

You might want to recompile it using the instructions on EUG's site for the BBC Model B:

Kecske Bak wrote:The version of Chris Dewhurst's excellent puzzler Shields only works properly on a BBC Master (for instance the shield counter is always zero, you cannot begin a new game, simply carry on an old one), but the Play button will load it into JSBeeb in BBC Micro mode. You might want to recompile it using the instructions on EUG's site for the BBC Model B: http://www.acornelectron.co.uk/eug/62/a-shiel.html (i.e. PAGE=&2300 / CHAIN"U.SHASS")

Do you know how to play the game? If so, please try this version, which I've "recompiled", as you suggested:

Many thanks for looking into this. The new version now has a working shield indicator, but it still doesn't reset the maps when you press ESCAPE to start a new game and now it runs far too fast (so fast it's unplayable - I'd guess at Acorn Electron speed).

If you played the current bbcmicro.co.uk version on a Master that will show you how fast the game is supposed to be.

Sorry for all the hassle with this game. I only discovered it last week and I think it's a little gem.

Well, now I can't get the map to reset on any version - I think the current bbcmicro.co.uk version on the emulated Master is the best version at the moment as it plays at the correct speed with the Shield indicator working meaning that the game is at least playable.

I wondered that too after I could only get Uridium to work on the master, but tricky was of the opinion that it was a weird timing bug in the game that was more likely to be triggered in the emulator than in a real BBC, so I left it, especially as many people could play it on the model B.

However I think you are probably correct, and it wouldn't be to hard to put a flag in the database to say whether it should boot on a master or (by default) a model B. The main difficulty is identifying which games should run on a Master.

I know Holed Out works on the master emulation better than on the model B because it needs sideways RAM.

OK, So far we have uriduum (possibly) Holed out, and Shields seem to need to run on a Master. Any more?

I thought jsbeeb had sideways ram in b mode, but mayn be mistaken.
I know we (you) were doing the collection first, but with the current interest in demos and master support, it might be nice to add a demo section.

Holed out - there are three. Two have the splash screen as the screenshot, and one has a picture of gameplay. This is because I couldn't get the first two to work at all - they get as far as displaying the score card, but I expect to be taken to the fairway in glorious 3d graphics, but no joy.

Lee sent me a spreadsheet full of authors. I hope I have imported them OK. I have also added search on author.

I have also added a rather rough and ready database download in the same format as the spreadsheet at http://bbcmicro.co.uk/ss.php. I save Lee's spreadsheet in csv format and compare with this file to see how close we are. I have not looked at genres yet, and release types need some work. Authors in the database have spaces after the initials where in the spreadsheet they don't. There are a few changes in publisher as well, but all in all it seems pretty close.

I have done a number of updates and corrections to all the data to match Lee's spreadsheet. I have also changed the grid so it only displays the publisher name up to the first open bracket the same as we do for the title.